‘We do love a graveyard’: Meet the couple creating SA’s only in-house carbon gravel bikes
Gothic Cycles creates custom-made bikes with a dark twist and has a strong focus on “quality rather than aesthetics”.
After struggling to find a product that met their standards, Bio-Mechanics Cycles & Repairs (BMCR) owners Lia Weston and Pete Hague created Gothic Cycles, South Australia’s only in-house carbon gravel bike brand.
“It’s a bit of a first really because there aren’t any other in-house carbon gravel bike brands in South Australia,” says Lia.
The name Gothic Cycles was inspired by the couple’s love of the gothic aesthetic, both are particularly drawn to the architecture of European cathedrals.
“They’re so amazingly over the top as far as detail and the emotions that they invoke when you are in that space,” Pete says.
“Because Gothic Cycles is our product, we thought we would be quite personal with how we named it, because Gothic is something that has always been part of us.
“Where else are gravel cycles? In forests. A gothic forest is very close to our hearts as well as being outside in nature, but we do love a graveyard which is why quite a few of the photoshoots are done in graveyards.”
Pete says his interest in the gothic aesthetic came as a rebellion against the conservatism of his home life.
“We grew up in that sort of late 70s, early 80s, even into the early 90s, where we were dark wave,” he says.
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“A lot of our customers go on a bike riding sessions as a mental health thing, and it makes you feel better. A lot of kind of gothic music has that kind of introspective focus and self-reflection,” Lia adds.
Despite being a project tied to their own personalities, the couple wanted to offer a product that is deeply unique to each customer who enters the shop.
“The tie between Gothic Cycles as an entity and BMCR as an entity is more a dedication to quality rather than aesthetics,” says Lia.
“At the moment in the market for carbon gravel bikes, there’s no option to actually customise the bike the way you want it so we want to offer something which has that ability so each bike is unique.
“We found lots of models from manufacturers which are always trying to shoot a particular price point when they make a certain bike and so a lot of them end up being quite compromised.
“They’ve got proprietary tech which ties you into a manufacturer system which can be a real liability.”
The couple say their philosophy has always been to keep things rolling, working to keep bikes in their original condition and out of landfill.
“We have a long-term relationship with a lot of our customers so we want to make sure that whatever we are actually handing over to them is something that’s going to last and perform well,” Lia says.
“The reaction to Gothic Cycles has been super positive, we’ve had such nice feedback and lots of people have been coming in to have a look and a chat about the brand.”
